Technique Thursday — tubular bind off

by ysoldateagueApril 10, 2014

A tubular bind-off that’s a perfect match for a tubular cast on.The only catch is that the only way to create that seamless join between the stitches is to sew it. Sewn bind-offs, especially along long stretches aren’t my favourite but this one is completely worth it. Just make sure to cut the tail long enough. This technique involves grafting so if you aren’t familiar with that you might want to look that up.

There are two ways to do this, the method shown here is by far the simpler but skipping the second needle and grafting the stitches on one needle, like this, is faster.

Shown as a bind off for k1, p1 ribbing but can be used for any stitch pattern that you’d use a tubular cast on for.

You will need

Blunt darning needle

A spare needle in the same size or a slightly smaller size than the working needle

2 x 2 ribbing

For 2×2 rib the stitches can be rearranged into 1×1 rib before working the set up rows. If you’ve already done the tubular cast on for 2×2 rib the process of rearranging the stitches is essentially the same. *K1, slip the next st off the needle, p into the next stitch making sure that the loose stitch is a the front, put the loose stitch back on the needle and k it, p 1, rep from * to end.

Pricing patterns has always been one of the hardest parts of designing and I’ve often felt like the “standard” price of knitting patterns is both lower than other similar products (eg. indie sewing patterns) and doesn’t really reflect the amount of work that goes into them. At the same time, it’s totally fair to worry that rising pattern prices will price people out.